Reagan wrote:Some people look at me funny when I say this, but the entire thing was done on a computer without any scanned sketches at all. All the "inking" was done in Photoshop with the help of a Wacom tablet.

Because it's good
perhaps too good and everything about the look/tone/line weight suggests brushwork

the roundtable will go live this afternoon with the one on ones added throughout the week [except for the intro and roundtable the links will be dead, but you can see how i've paired everyone up thus far]

i might tinker with the roundtable a bit more [adding colour to your names so they stand out more for instance - or maybe creating a bunch of 100 x 100 images to link to your sites to run down the left hand corner]

J.ELLIS wrote:FOLLOWUP: I guess that can have an adverse affect on someone, it’s interesting that you chose one of Kurasawa’s most personal films as your favourite. Many people seemed to not understand it as it wasn’t particularly straightforward. Do you try to create the same sense of openness in your stories, letting the reader’s imagination decipher the piece rather then laying it out for them?

Hmm, I may still be too young and naive to effectively pull that off without seeming pretentious. I think that with Dreams, the stories are open-ended for the audience, but certainly not for the creator.

In short, yes, I love to let the reader's imagination take the material farther than I have. In fact, if I haven't done something to imply a story bigger than the text itself, I think I've failed. For now, though, I'm just concentrating more on the fundamentals of good storytelling. Without fully understanding the mechanics of it, I don't feel I can be good at turning it on its head.

J.ELLIS wrote:FOLLOWUP: What the current schedule for FLIGHT? One volume per year? Six months, eight months, etc?

It is currently being published at a yearly schedule.

J.ELLIS wrote:FOLLOWUP: You mentioned wanting to create children’s material that wasn’t condescending, which seems to be the biggest problem with writings directed towards younger readers, even something like Harry Potter, the most successful children book series in a long time, falls prey to being quite formulaic. How do you avoid falling prey to the same pratfalls or clichés?

I actually have no problems with formulas. They can even be very helpful. The condescending aspect of the storytelling comes when there is an obvious disconnect between the author and a young reader. I don't feel the Harry Potter books fall prey to this very often, since I can tell that J.K. Rowling does genuinely care for her young readers, and wants to teach them about life while talking to them on the level.

When I create a story, I usually think about that one cynical kid in the back of the classroom, who usually has a vicious distaste for anything that isn't genuine, and I write for him. Luckily, when I was a kid, that was me.

Ah, I'm sorry I dropped the ball on this! I really do appreciate your questions.

FOLLOWUP: It reminds me of stuff that I wrote years and years ago that I referred to as ‘fictional autobiography’ – though not necessarily a complete picture of real events, they were inspired by real events and the story just took a different turn. Has working on the story given you an interest in following the similar steps of your character? Travelling and learning as he does?

I started Tej's story because I never quite got to do what he did. I'd love to be able to travel more, and to see the world on my own. It's kind of a wish-fulfilling fantasy in that sense.

FOLLOWUP: Having a fulltime job is enough of a commitment let alone trying to manage side projects, have you created a strict work ethic for yourself?

When I'm working on these projects, the easiest way to get them done is to set up a timed schedule and regiment the task as much as possible, even if it's just for brainstorming and playing around. But in practice it usually involves sleeping less!

FOLLOWUP: Do you find some friends are just waiting to see themselves portrayed in your strips?

Haha, yes. Sometimes friends directly ask me when they're going to show up in it! They'll just have to wait for an epiphany involving them to roll around. (Or for me to just be less lazy.)